When and w hat t o assess

1.2 When and w hat t o assess

Tradit ionally, w e t end t o t hink of t his t ype of assessm ent as consist ing solely of ‘ m arking an essay’ done f or hom ew ork or t he t eacher w alking round t he class during an act ivit y t o get a vague idea of w het her t he st udent s ‘ are doing all right ’ or not . The classroom is obviously t he m ost im port ant place t o assess st udent s inf orm ally. It is also w here m ost dat a is available. St udent s spend m ore t im e here t han in any ot her learning environm ent and here w e can m onit or st udent s’ perf orm ance in all f our skills – speaking, list ening, reading and w rit ing. How ever w e can also assess w ork out side t he classroom , eg looking at sam ples of st udent s’ w ork or collect ing in w orkbooks and vocabulary books. One of t he f irst t hings w e need t o do is t o w ork out how m uch w e are going t o assess as t here are m any ot her aspect s of our job t hat require at t ent ion bot h in and out side t he classroom . In t he classroom w e need t o t hink about classroom m anagem ent and reaching t he aim s of t he lesson f irst . The t im e w e have f or assessm ent is lim it ed. Sim ilarly, out side t he classroom w e have lot s of ot her t hings t o do like planning and m at erials creat ion. We m ust m ake sure t hat m arking does not t ake up all our t im e. Because of all t hese pressures, it is usef ul t o t hink about w hat t hings w e are going t o assess consciously and w hich t hings w e are just going t o get an im pression of . Think about how you carry out informal assessment with your students. Look at the list of items below. Either on your own or with a colleague or colleagues, decide which of the items you assess informally by giving a mark and which you merely get an impression of. I get an overall I give a specific Linguistic factors impression mark a written homework b written grammar activities c speaking activities d projects e listening tasks f reading tasks g writing tasks h vocabulary activities Non-linguistic factors a attitudeeffort b participation in class c group work d organisation of work e presentation of work f punctuality Are there any other factors that you consider? © M ichael Harris and Paul M cCann 1994. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom. 7 In addit ion t o t hinking about w hat t o assess it can be usef ul t o t hink about t he w eight ing t hat you are going t o give each area. W e w ill look at t his in m ore det ail w hen w e look at planning assessm ent program m es in t he next chapt er. How ever, it is w ort h t hinking about your priorit ies at t his st age; w hich areas you are going t o give m ost m arks f or. The priorit ies t hat you have w ill be t hose out lined in t he syllabus plan of t he school t hat you w ork in, but it is w ort h est ablishing clearly t he w eight ing in your inf orm al assessm ent at t he beginning of a year. To decide w hat is a pass or a f ail you need t o balance t he f our skills, language and non-linguist ic f act ors. For exam ple you m ay w ant t o w eight t he f inal assessm ent in f avour of speaking or list ening if you have spent proport ionat ely m ore class t im e on t hese skills. In t his case you should give a higher percent age of t he overall score t o t hese areas and less f or ot her areas like language and w rit ing. Anot her key considerat ion is how m uch inf orm al assessm ent you are going t o do com pared w it h f orm al assessm ent or t est ing. If t here are a lot of t est s during t he t erm or year, t hen inf orm al assessm ent on a large scale m ay not be adding m uch t o t he inf orm at ion gained about a st udent . How ever if t here are very f ew t est s, inf orm al assessm ent m ay t ake on a m ore im port ant and inf luent ial role and m ay cont ribut e m ore inf orm at ion t han in t he previous case. Everyt hing depends on specif ic inst it ut ions and t he w ay each inst it ut ion w orks w ill aff ect t he exact w eight ing of each area of assessm ent . If you have f reedom t o decide yourself on t he balance bet w een inf orm al and f orm al assessm ent in your classroom , it is w ort h t hinking about it bef ore st art ing of f a course. It is also im port ant t o inf orm your st udent s so t hat t hey have a clear idea about how t hey are going t o be assessed. Weighting: informalformal assessment What is an ideal balance for your classes between informal assessment and formal assessment or tests? Which of these comments reflects your classroom situation? • ‘ I do nearly all my assessment informally. I have small classes of about fifteen to twenty students and we have quite a few hours of English a week. I suppose that I get 80 of my marks from informal assessment and 20 from tests.’ • ‘I have about twenty-five or thirty students in my classes and we only have three hours of English a week. I get 50 of my marks from informal assessment: the work they do in class, projects and homework. The other 50 I get from short tests which I give throughout the term.’ • ‘I do nearly all of my assessment formally, through tests. I get some marks from work that students do in class and I always give them an oral mark. However I have over forty in each class and we only have two hours of English each week. Because of this I have to get most of my marks from short tests which I give during the term. I suppose that I get 70 of my marks from tests and 30 from informal assessment.’ 8 © M ichael Harris and Paul M cCann 1994. This page may be photocopied for use in the classroom. © M ichael Harris, Paul M cCann 1994, M acmillan Publishers Ltd 9

1.3 Inf orm al assessm ent of linguist ic f act ors